Milwaukee's hopes may rest on Drew Gooden's wacky game. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

We know Andrew Bogut is going to be out. His ankle won’t unfracture quickly. We don’t know how long it will be for, but we can assume it will be for a while. Whether or not this torpedoes Milwaukee’s already fragile season largely depends on who replaces the majority of Bogut’s 30 minutes each night.

The early candidate is Drew Gooden. He will likely get the start in Bogut’s spot against the Chicago Bulls on Friday and Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday. For the time being, he’s Milwaukee’s best option for big minutes.

That isn’t saying much.

Last season, Gooden’s PER while playing the center position was 13.6, roughly six points lower than his PER at the power forward position. The numbers have remained consistent to last season this season. Gooden’s PER as a center this year is 13, while his PER at the four is 29. The smaller sample size for this season makes me hesitate a bit, but since they are consistent with last season, it seems to be a pattern worth recognizing as far as Gooden’s role on the Bucks is concerned, although Gooden did post an 18 PER while playing center with the Mavericks three seasons ago.

The aggressive, athletic Gooden can occasionally thrill, but he often seems to make the most simple parts of the game difficult. Many passes become no look ones. Pump fakes turn into foul drawing exhibitions. Suddenly, Gooden has developed a taste for the outside shot too, which is probably better than him shooting 22-foot jump shots, but isn’t an ideal shot for a starting center that has never demonstrated that range before.

An apparent general lack of attention to detail seems to make Gooden a less than ideal candidate as a back line defender. Simply, he isn’t the guy who erases the mistakes of his teammates. But if Gooden isn’t a perfect fit offensively and isn’t the defender Milwaukee thrives with, is there a better internal option to replace Bogut?

Nope.

Read more…

Andrew Bogut rolled his ankle upon falling on Houston point guard Kyle Lowry in the Bucks 105 – 99 victory on Wednesday.

John Hammond Announcement on the Bucks Twitter page:

Andrew returned to Milwaukee this morning to be evaluated by Bucks orthopaedic physician, and to undergo a MRI exam on his left ankle. The results of the MRI identified a left ankle fracture which will keep Bogut out indefinitely

Fracture’s are often a bigger nuisance than a clean break.

Ugh.

This season, the Bucks are 0-4 without Bogut.

Ugh. Read more…

The Milwaukee Bucks were feeling all kinds of 2009-2010 last night. Losing Andrew Bogut to injury. Making shots. Winning. It was quite the sight to behold. Enter today’s Buck Hits.

Recap

01/23/12 Bucks v. Hawks

Box Score

Analysis: JSOnline, Brewhoop, Behind the Buck Pass

01/25/12 Bucks @ Rockets

Box Score

Analysis: JSOnline, Brewhoop, Behind the Buck Pass

Power Rankings

Marc Stein: 17
John Hollinger: 19
NBA.com: 17

Coverage

Michael Hunt of the Journal Sentinel has an answer for the Bucks’ struggles: Amnesty Stephen Jackson. IF the Bucks wanted to ditch the Jackson experiment, I would bet that they could somehow trade him, getting something back in return rather than paying him to sit at home.

Great breakdown of the starting lineups the Bucks have trotted out thusfar over at Brewhoop.

Bad news for the Bucks: Bogut is expecting the worst with his ankle injury. ”I’m not optimistic. With my history of unlucky injuries I’m hoping this one can do me a favor and (go away). Most of my injuries are unfortunate things and this goes in the same boat as that. It’s frustrating,” Bogut moped. Best case, according to Bogut, is “hopefully it would be a week thing. We’ll see what happens.” One week means no Bogut for games against Chicago, the Lakers, Detroit, and Miami. And if he misses ten days, you can add another meeting with Detroit and Chicago to that list.

More bad news for the Bucks: they’re still the least valuable franchise in the NBA, according to Forbes.

I don’t wish to alarm you, but slowly and surely over the past few years, something has changed in the Eastern Conference, little by little. And this season, it’s more evident than it has been in quite some time.

The East isn’t really the Least any more.

The 2004-05 season was the last time the Eastern Conference featured a playoff bracket without one team with a record either at .500 or below. You have to go back to the last lockout season, 1998-99 to find a season in which a team made it to the playoffs in the Western Conference with a .500 record. The West has been the best, in terms of volume of strong teams, for quite some time.

And the West is still deeper this season, with current eight seeds, the Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies generally well regarded and currently sporting 10-7 records.

But this season, the Eastern Conference is as tough as it’s been 1-8 since the middle of the 2000s. The current top five is Chicago, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami and Philadelphia. Miami, Orlando and Chicago features superstars with supporting casts that have been tinkered with for multiple seasons now in an attempt to play to the strengths of their stars. Orlando has been an early surprise, but if they intend to keep Dwight Howard, and it seems they do at least through this season, they’ll always be relevant. Chicago and Miami are legitimate title contenders.

Atlanta and Philadelphia are on opposite ends of the “pretty good, but not great” spectrum. Philly is young and coming up. Jrue Holiday could still be something special and they have a number of guys in their early 20s learning how to be really good NBA players. We don’t know how good they’ll be by the end of this season or next, but we know they are a team worth watching for now thanks to their 12-5 record. The Hawks still have Joe Johnson and Josh Smith, so they still matter, as Bucks fans can attest to after Monday night’s loss. Al Horford is hurt, but the Hawks are still a tough team.

It gets no easier after that. Read more…